Today we left Yangshuo - and the world's best apple crumble - and took a flight to Shanghai. The drive from the airport to our hotel allowed us to see how big this city really is. It's enormous, and has a very different feel to it compared to Beijing. As we neared the centre, the buildings steadily became more modern and much taller, and it seems to somehow be less classically Chinese than Beijing - no doubt because of its cosmopolitan history with contacts with the Europeans.
In the afternoon, some of us went with Ewen to a building with 2 floors of purely photographic gear, where I resisted temptation to buy more hardware and only purchased a lovely book of B&W images of western China - only $26, worth at least twice that at home. Getting to here involved plunging into the Shanghai subway system - again, wonderfully efficient an cheap, and incredibly crowded.
After dinner we wandered down Nanjing Rd, the main shopping street, to The Bund - the riverside strip that has a number of buildings of different styles of architecture. Across the river is the fantastically modern Pudong district - gleaming towers and buildings that contrast with traditional Chinese cityscapes. I only grabbed a few shots, as I know I'll be back over the next few days.
The Pudong district. No wonder China builds a new power station every 2 days!
Pearl TV Tower. The world's highest monument to kitsch.
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